On Monday the Government made a detailed announcement on investment in roads across the country. In the North West, this amounts to nine new schemes, worth about £800 million and estimated to create 600 jobs in construction.

Three will be of particular interest to local residents:

M60 Junction 18 (Simister Island)
“Improvement to the Simister Island interchange between the M62, M60 and M66 to the north east of Manchester. Introduces more free-flowing movements to substantially improve 1 of the busiest junctions in the north west.”
We have asked for more information on this, as the details will no doubt be of interest to residents who live near to the motorways (the Motorway is already right up to the houses on at least one side of Simister Island),

M62 Smart Motrway M62 J20-25
“Smart motorways across the Pennines, from Rochdale to Brighouse. Links 2 existing smart motorway sections to create a continuous smart route from Manchester to Leeds.”
We’ll all familiar of the work which is currently being undertaken (or at least the cones that have been put in place!) to make a ‘smart’ motorway from Rochdale round to the Trafford Centre – hopefully to increase capacity and reduce congestion. The plan is to extend this work over to West Yorkshire.

Manchester North West Quadrant Study
“Study of how to improve all modes of transport to the north and west of Manchester to ensure the road network can continue to support the city’s growth.”
Not sure if this means us or not, but Prestwich is certainly north of Manchester!

We’ll try to find out more information and let residents know.